Oatmeal-machine



W. HESTON. vOemuzneaJ-IVIachine.

No. 228,531. Patented June 8, i880.

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N. ETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER. wAsnmmoN, D. Q

TINTTED STATES PATENT @rrrcn.

WILLIAM HESTON, or ALLIANCE, ASSIGNOR TO QUAKER MILL COMPANY, or R VENNA, OHIO.

MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 228,531, dated June 8, 1880.

Application filed November 10, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, WILLIAM HESTON, of Alliance, Stark county, Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Oatmeal- Gutters, of which the following is a specification.

The nature of my invention consists in the,

use of adjustable knives, in combination with stationary gages, for the purpose of cutting oats or other grain into coarse meal.

The object of the invention is to prevent variation in the distance between the knives by sharpening them, and also to enable them to be used a much longer time by adjustment to compensate for wear.

Figure l isa plan, representing adjustable cutters, with their frame and gages. Fig. 2 is a vertical section at the junction of the ends of the knives with the frame. Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section through the knives, gages, and frame. Fig. 4. represents the grooved side piece of the frame. Fig. 5 is a horizontal section at the dotted line 1 in Fig. 3. Fig. 6 represents one of the gages. 2 5 Frame aisformed of side and end pieces bolted together. The knives c are placed in frame a alternately with their gages or, whose upper sides are beveled back from the cutters, the lower edges of the bevels being directly be neath the cutting-edges. The knives c are set at a sufficient inclination to allow the escape of meal between the knife and the lower edge of the beveled upper side of gage 00. Each knife or cutter c is a thin plate of steel, firmly held against the inclined side of a gage, 00, by contact of the other side of the cutter with the inclined flanges s on the opposite side of another gage, :v, the series of alternate cutters and gages, with followers f and b, all being held firmly together in position in frame a by turning set screw h in an end piece of the frame.

Each side piece of the frame has a longitudinal groove, i, Fig. 4, which has an upward opening at one end of the groove to admit the ends of gages 00, which are fitted to slide in the grooves.

The flanges s on gages 00 have the same inclination as the cutters, and press against the sides of the cutters close to their ends. Be-

tween flanges s s on gage w the side of the gage diverges downward from the cutter to allow free escape of the meal or particles of oats severed by the cutters. The gage 00, which is first placed in frame a, has its flanges s 8 made to fit against the inner side of the end piece of the frame. Follower f has flanges similar to flanges on gages x. Its side opposite the flanges fits against the side of follower b.

Each cutter c and its supporting-gageware 6o beveled back from the cuttenedge on their upper side to a depth equal to the length of the particles of meal into which the oats are to be cut. Both sides of follower b are vertical. Gages w and followers 1) and f are placed in frame a through the openings to the grooves i in the sides of the frame.

In placing knives c in position after they have been sharpened the frame containing gages 00 and followers b and f should be placed with its upper side down on a level surface, the upper side of the frame being also level. The knives, which do not enter the grooves i, but only extend to the sides of frame a, are then placed in position between gages x, with the edges of the knives on the level surface on which the frame rests. In this manner the edges of knives c and the frame are easily brought into the same plane. The set-screw h, which passes through a threaded hole in the center of the end piece of frame a, is then turned until it firmly compresses followers 1) and f and all the gages .00 and knives 0 between it and the opposite end piece of frame a.

In using the device herein described a per- 8 forated plate or other suitable means is employed to conduct the oats cndwise to the cutters 0. By giving this perforated plate on which the cats are placed areciprocating lllO- tion on the top of frame a and across cutters 9o 0 the oats projecting endwise through the perforations of the plate are arrested by the beveled upper sides of gages 00, where they are severed by cutters cinto particles whose length is gaged -by the depth of the bevels. The 5 meal passes out and down between the bevels and the inclined sides of the knives. The upper ends of flanges s are beveled to prevent the lodgment of meal on them.

Oatmeal-machines are in use in which the I00 c, and beveled gages m, on which oats may be fed endwise from a suitable feeder, in combination with frame (0, provided with a groove, 11, on each side of the series to receive the ends of the gages, all the cutters and gages being arranged contiguously, and the gages being provided with flanges s s, substantially as described.

The combination of the grooved frame a, screw h, followers and b, and alternate gages m and cutters c, substantially as described.

WILLIAM HESTON.

Witnesses:

BRADFORD H0 WLAND, H. D SEYMOUR. 

